I have news from the Publishing Powers that Be. :woot:
My editor liked the revisions I made and passed my book onto the senior editor. :worthy:
Now all of you need to send positive thoughts into the universe that the senior editor wants to buy the book.
I may just have to go eat a Cadbury’s Creme Egg now, to celebrate. :dancingfool:
So the new nightly routine in our household consists of putting the baby to bed, hearing random screaming from her room, opening the door and finding a naked child. 
I put her clothes back on (which is like wrestling cats), tuck her in with a firm reminder, “Keep your clothes on!” at which time she giggles saying, “Funny!” Thirty seconds after I close the door, she’s naked again. Maaan.
This morning she dumped an entire can of fish food into the aquarium. Hey, the fish were happy. Me? Not so much. My son thought it was hilarious–”Whoa, that’s a lot!” :rotfl: After vacuuming out some of the contaminated water, I’m hoping to remedy the rest of it tonight.
On another random topic, Easter is coming. 
As the designated Easter Bunny ™, I have to assemble the family baskets and purchase the candy. Hey, I don’t mind. All that buying power! But there must be Cadbury’s Creme Eggs in my basket. Heads will roll and life as I know it will end unless there is Cadbury’s in some form. For any of you living in the UK, my all-time favorite candy bar is the Picnic bar. :hungry: I plan to buy a case of them when I visit again.
On my “must buy” list are usually jelly beans, a chocolate bunny of some form (Dove bunnies are tasty!), Cadbury’s of course, and then I often look at whatever else is offered at the store. Sometimes Reese’s eggs or Russell Stover. Sometimes I’ll throw a toy or two from the dollar store in my kids’ baskets. But I absolutely hate Peeps. Too much sugar! (Says she who inhales those rich, chocolatey, cream-filled Cadbury eggs) Someone once said you can microwave Peeps and make these monstrous creatures. Heh, heh, heh…that’s about all I’d do with them. But the absolute worst Easter candy for me are those sugar coated, hard Easter egg candies (they’re about the size of your thumb). Blech.
What Easter candies do you love and hate?
My Dot Moms column is up today.
Today was a tough day for me. I had my spring observation from the assistant principal, and of all the days to observe, she chose today. When I’m teaching the Holocaust. Lovely. Yes, let’s take the most depressing history lesson on the planet (and it’s hard for me to teach emotionally–having to repeat the lesson 4 times in succession). Now let’s throw an observation on top of it. Sigh. :help: Thankfully I only had one child cry today and it was after class. It’s such a gut-wrenching lesson that it’s hard for me to keep it together. Let’s just say tonight warranted a steak dinner with a nice glass of Merlot. :drunk: Oh, and chocolate-chip cookies for dessert.
Another random observation. My daughter’s favorite work of the month is: naked. Yes, she will strip herself down and run around yelling, “Naked, Mommy! Naked!”
I swear, the child is destined to become a stripper. She frightens me.
Also, I have a correction to make. My mother was the one who won the Wheel of Fortune contest, not my brother. She is taking him along with her, however, since it’s his dream come true. So, it’s all good. 
Last random observation: Can I just say I love the Military Channel’s shows on Navy Seal training? I’ve been droolingwatching these amazingly-toned men attempt to be some of the military’s finest. What’s not to like? :woot: It’s Survivor without all the backstabbing and lying.
Finally, I’m very stoked because I have come up with the COOLEST concept for romantic historicals. No, I’m not telling. But it’s high-concept, and if I can pull this off, I have a good feeling about the ideas. 
Well, I wasn’t a GH finalist. That’s okay. Several of my friends did make the cut: Mary Fechter, Leslie Dicken, and Anna Sugden. :worthy: :woot: Congratulations to all of you!! I’ll be rooting for each of you to win in your category on Awards night. In case anyone is interested, here’s the link to the finalists in the unpublished and in the published categories. One of the most enjoyable nights of the year for romance writers is the Rita/GH Awards ceremony. Think Academy Awards for romance novelists, and you get the idea. It’s wonderful. Can’t wait to cheer these folks on! 
Another reason to celebrate is that I finished the second draft of TBTDNKM (The Book that Darned Near Killed Me). I made so many mistakes on this novel, it isn’t funny. I think I deleted somewhere in the neighborhood of 60+ pages. :loser: On the bright side, it still came out at 90,000 words, so I’m back where I need to be. I have line edits to do, but I’m trying to sucker one of my critique partners into reading it for me. 
In the meantime, I plan to enjoy my weekend, maybe print off the second draft, and clean the house. Oh, the excitement. The choices! Do I scrub toilets or vacuum floors? Do I dust or do laundry? The fun never ends. 
My darling almost-two-year-old woke me with a giggle at 5:17 a.m. “Hi, Mommy!” she chirped. “Supper!”
Clearly, the child is deranged. No human being needs to be fed at this hour. I took her to the bathroom and tucked her back into bed. “Don’t want to!” she screamed. “Too bad,” I retorted. “Night, night.” There was great gnashing of teeth and breathing of fire. I believe I squeezed out another half-hour’s worth of sleep, but it wasn’t all that good.
But I finished my book, so it’s all good. Maybe I’ll start training the toddlers to clean. “Hey, kids! Let’s play scrub the bathtub! It’s a wonderful game!” Think they’ll buy it?
Nah, me neither. :rotfl:
My family has always enjoyed entering contests. When she was in high school, my mother was a finalist in the Pillsbury Bake-Off and won a trip to Hollywood. Her recipe was an Apricot Coconut cake. Though she didn’t win, we have a picture of her with Ronald Reagan. She and her sister also won various other cooking contests which brought two new stoves to their family.
As for me, I won a local pie-baking contest once for a pear pie (mmmm!):hungry: and I was a spelling bee junkie. Spelling was always easy for me, and by golly I wanted that Encyclopedia Brittanica that was first prize. :woot: Alas, it was not to be. I was brought down by the word dilapidated. I spelled it with two L’s, and my spelling career was shot down. :rambo:
In my mind, I always wondered whether those national sweepstakes ever meant anything. You know the ones–enter to win a free trip to Hollywood to watch the finale of American Idol! Or–enter to see Vanna White get her Hollywood Star on the Walk of Fame!
My brother has always been a Wheel of Fortune devotee. I’m not sure if he’s ever missed an episode. I admire him a lot because, despite his disabilities, he holds a steady job, is a good citizen and has friends at work. He doesn’t make excuses for the challenges life has thrown him but does the best he can. All his life, for birthdays and Christmas, he would light up if we gave him a computer Wheel of Fortune game. And just for kicks, my mom entered his name in the Wheel of Fortune drawing on tv.
He won. :crazyjumping: Next month, he and my mother will fly to Hollywood to meet Vanna White, go on tours and parties, and there might be a chance my mom could compete on the show. When I heard the news, my first thought was: sometimes Fate gets it right. Out of all the people in the United States who could have won the contest, it will mean the most to my brother. This is a dream come true for him, and he deserves it. I’m really happy for him. :dance: So if they happen to televise any of it, and you see a guy named Frank Willingham, you’ll know it’s my brother. Woo hoo! :wave:
Have you ever won a contest (writing or otherwise)?
P.S.–Keep your fingers crossed for me. I entered the Golden Heart contest for romance writing, and the finalists are announced tomorrow.
Lately, I’m hearing more and more about the declining historical romance market. Agents have told me that they just can’t sell historicals unless they are New, Bold, and Different (but not so risky that a publisher won’t take a chance). I’ve heard from more than one that I should write contemporaries instead. But I don’t wanna! :hissyfit:
So many authors, formerly historical romance power-houses, have switched genres. Jude Deveraux is now writing women’s contemporary fiction. I used to love her medieval heroes and westerns. Julie Garwood is writing suspense. Lisa Kleypas will be writing her first contemporary novel for St. Martin’s Press. And Kristin Hannah made the jump from historicals to women’s fiction a long time ago. I’m left to wonder, is it a self-fulfilling prophesy? Are their agents advising them to jump and abandon ship for a more lucrative genre? Or do they genuinely want to write something new? What makes a person re-examine their writing persona and shift?
All I can say is, I hope Johanna Lindsey doesn’t go there. She’s just about one of the few historical romance authors who has stuck around through the years.
I do think historicals are in need of a face-lift. Gone are the days of the Regency women who would wear a velvet riding habit with a jaunty feather and swoon in the arms of her hero. And I say to that, “Thank God!” I have a hard time believing that women hundreds of years ago are any different than women now. Yes, it was a paternal society and women’s legal rights were next to nothing. But some traits are universal. If anyone threatened a medieval lady’s children, she’d serve him up for breakfast. While her man was off fighting in the Crusades, it was her responsibility to keep the castle running.
I think we need to see more heroines like these, strong women and heroic men who love them. I’d like to see more of the human emotion, perhaps some commoner romances like the servants of the castle instead of the lord/lady. Instead of abandoning historical romance, I’m hoping that it will undergo a dramatic shift that will renew all the reasons I enjoyed it in the first place. I do think the pendulum will shift and they will come back in a strong way.
And still I wonder, why did these bestselling authors stop writing them? Was it market pressure or personal choice?
Quitting is never an easy thing to do. A few years ago, I took up figure skating. I worked my way through the levels until I reached the point where I would have to pull those 4-hour practice sessions in order to get better. Skating was no longer fun because my skill weren’t getting any better and I had hit the wall. It was a very tough decision to quit, but I knew that Olympic skating wasn’t my dream. Skating was recreational, for fun, and I just didn’t have my mind wrapped around it as a career. I felt so guilty when I stopped, but it gave me more time for other things, like my dream of becoming an author. Now I’m okay with the decision. Maybe someday I’ll go back to skating, just for fun.
Have you ever given up on something in your life? Were there any dreams you had that you were forced to abandon? Did you regret it?
This morning I awoke to a 23-month-old voice chirping, “Hi, Mommy! Mommy, supper!” I dragged my head up and read 5:43 a.m. on the clock. :sleepy2: Too early. I tried to pull her into bed for some snuggle time, hoping she would go back to sleep. Instead, she jerked my eyelids open and demanded, “Supper, Mommy! Eat, eat, eat!” (She cannot yet pronounce the word “breakfast.”)
So I dragged myself downstairs, threw some Raisin Bran in a bowl and tried to grab five more minutes of sleep on the couch while Her Royal Highness ate her cereal. Why is it that children must have your attention at every waking and SLEEPING moment?
Anyway, after I resigned myself to the fact that sleeping in was not going to be an option on this fine Sunday morning, I made one of our family breakfast favorites: Belgian waffles with strawberries (okay, frozen) and whipped cream. Mmmm..:hungry:
What’s your favorite weekend/special breakfast?
The other day, I noticed that the female guppy had apparently been doing the Weight Watchers program. Yep, not pregnant anymore. Only, there were no baby guppies to be seen. 
I did not mention anything to my son, because I was convinced that the baby guppies had become sushi snacks for the older ones. Oops.
Then last night, he was squinting at the tank. “What’s that fish, Mom?” he asked. When I peered closer, I saw the tiniest baby fish, no bigger than a hangnail. I transformed into an ER surgeon, thinking inwardly, we have to get a separation tank in here, stat! Move, people, move! :help:
With a swoosh of the net and the plastic separator insert in the tank, baby #1 was spared from an untimely death. Then we rescued another. I swear, once my son pointed it out to me, I found at least four. I wasn’t able to get the other two out until tonight–they decided to hang out with the algae eater underneath the rocks. Fortunately, we saved as many as we could. It’s nice to have some new life instead of more flushes.
In writing news, I fixed an outline that was bugging me and tonight I foresee multiple pages of writing in my future. Thankfully my trashy reality shows aren’t on tonight (I skipped this season of Survivor). There needs to be a Twelve Step Program for American Idol. :drunk: Am I pitiful or what?
On Monday I had my daughter’s teacher-conference. Yes, at the tender age of 23 months, they actually do these. I had no clue what to expect, but it went very well. The skills were more developmental than I’d thought (walks well, can put rings on a stick, etc.) and she was doing just fine. There were a few interesting things about my little one.
First, she doesn’t like rowdy/rough-housing kids. If they mess with her, she tends to remove herself and sit quietly with a book away from them. This fascinated me because if her brother messes with her at home, she’ll knock his block off. 
She also wasn’t all that fond of cleaning up. Gee, that one’s a shocker. I don’t know of any child who enjoys cleaning up. :rotfl:
Last, the teacher mentioned that she was starting to learn about scissors. She mentioned that my daughter had trouble grasping them and was slowly learning how. Did I practice with her at home? Um, not so much.
This is the child who will gleefully decorate herself with a ballpoint pen, coloring her heels, arms, legs, and face. And they want me to give her a pair of scissors? :flying: You have got to be kidding me. The child would shave her head and throw the hair up in the air. And then she’d go after her brother. When I was her age, I cut my brother’s hair off the day before the family portrait. So nope, I’m not a fan of handing scissors to little children. There’s time for that later. Like, maybe when they’re eight.
In the meantime, I’m just trying to keep her from using postage stamps as stickers to decorate herself.
When you were a kid, what sort of trouble did you get into?
(Sung to the tune of Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive”–lyrics modified)
At first I was afraid, I was so forlorn
Kept thinkin’ my book would come back with a rejection form
And now I’ve spent so many nights
Wonderin’ what is going on?
Is my book stuck upon a desk
Or is it absolutely gone?
Don’t send it back!
Don’t want it here!
I just walked in to screen my email
My heart paralyzed with fear.
I should have bought Caller ID
So I’d know the editor’s voice
I want to open up champagne
For when my book’s bought, I’ll rejoice!
Whoa, let’s go!
Let’s make a sale!
Come on I’m waiting just to hear
You say you want another tale.
There were folks who tried to hurt me
Saying that my book’s not right
But I won’t crumble
No, I won’t lay down and die.
Oh, no, not I!
I will survive!
Oh, as long as I know how to write
I know I’ll be alive
I’ve got all my life to live,
I’ve got lots of books to give
I will survive, I will survive! Hey, hey…:shimmy:
